New Oncologist visit.

pscott1
pscott1 Member Posts: 207 Member
in Colorectal Cancer #1
So after my upsetting visit with my first Oncologist that was referred to me by my Surgeon, I went to see my new one at Siteman Cancer Center yesterday. Very cool, very laid back, very comfortable to talk to. He went over my CT scan from 1/8 and MRI from 2/17 and gave his opinion. My Onc I initially went to see on 2/14 gave me the option of doing an MRI or not after I asked her about the comment in the CT scan saying there was an ill defined mass on my left lobe of my liver and a small cyst on the right lobe. After my surgeon took the tumor out of my right colon, he looked at my liver and told me after surgery that the mass on my left lobe looked like a hemangioma and the cyst on the right did not appear to be anything. After the MRI on the 17th, my first Onc called me at work last Thursday afternoon (2/24) and told me this...it was definately mets to the liver, multiple lesions throughout - 15, inoperable, not curable, could not do radiation because of risk of sever hepatitus, only option was chemo and people in my situation could possibly get 4 more years with chemo. Needless to say I was beside myself and fell apart. After going home, I spoke with a girl that I grew up with and she had a friend from high school that had similar situation, doctors told her to go home and get her affairs in order. She was referred to Siteman; that was 9 years ago and she's now cancer free.

After looking at the CT and MRI, my new Onc told me that he really didn't see anything that was raising great concern that what was in my liver was mets. He said that he wouldn't say that it was cancer or wasn't but he is having his radiologist look at it again. He is having me come in early next week to do a biopsy on my liver. He said that as of right now, he is still treating my cancer as Stage II Colon. He will still do chemo but we will wait until the results of the biopsy to come up with our treatment plan.

I don't want to fool myself or have false hope but the things he discussed with me gave me hope that it has not spread. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Has anyone had a misdiagnosis similar to this type of situation?

Thanks for your input!

Pam

Comments

  • Buzzard
    Buzzard Member Posts: 3,043 Member
    #2
    Pam....some words of wisdom for you.......
    You have just learned the most important lesson of your life......The art of second opinions....you see, I may sit here and tell you that getting this and doing that will give you 5 more years and the reason may be that my expertise on what needs to be done to help you has come to an end, but when you get a second opinion then you get a quantity of things going for you..First off, you skip all the BS and DR terms you hear because you get versed in terminology very fast in this journey and you know what questions to ask. You know when one Dr has come to the end of his expertise and so you have the wisdom and hopefully the opportunity to get a second opinion, and one that is more inline with your thinking, one that you have thought out and one that you think will work best for you, if not then your versed enough to get a third opinion, and so on and so on.
    Look at where you started, and through the knowledge and wisdom you have gained by having to immerse yourself within, you have gotten a second opinion, and one that sounds a lot better and it seems has certainly made you feel better, as it sounds I know I would feel better than what the first Dr said.......You made a wise move in my opinion, one that could only have been made knowing what you know and having the opportunity and guts to say" This is not the way it is and Im gonna do something proactive"...you may have just as well saved your own life in the process.....Take that and the fact that you made some right decisions in your treatment regimen and gain the feeling of control back in your life that also gives you the strength to know that you can.....and will.....beat this......Good for you Pam, My hats off to you........Love Hope and Longevity............Clift
  • tanstaafl
    tanstaafl Member Posts: 1,313 Member
    #3
    2nd opinions
    Definitely radiologist 2nd-3rd opinion territory.
  • pscott1
    pscott1 Member Posts: 207 Member
    #4
    Buzzard said:

    Pam....some words of wisdom for you.......
    You have just learned the most important lesson of your life......The art of second opinions....you see, I may sit here and tell you that getting this and doing that will give you 5 more years and the reason may be that my expertise on what needs to be done to help you has come to an end, but when you get a second opinion then you get a quantity of things going for you..First off, you skip all the BS and DR terms you hear because you get versed in terminology very fast in this journey and you know what questions to ask. You know when one Dr has come to the end of his expertise and so you have the wisdom and hopefully the opportunity to get a second opinion, and one that is more inline with your thinking, one that you have thought out and one that you think will work best for you, if not then your versed enough to get a third opinion, and so on and so on.
    Look at where you started, and through the knowledge and wisdom you have gained by having to immerse yourself within, you have gotten a second opinion, and one that sounds a lot better and it seems has certainly made you feel better, as it sounds I know I would feel better than what the first Dr said.......You made a wise move in my opinion, one that could only have been made knowing what you know and having the opportunity and guts to say" This is not the way it is and Im gonna do something proactive"...you may have just as well saved your own life in the process.....Take that and the fact that you made some right decisions in your treatment regimen and gain the feeling of control back in your life that also gives you the strength to know that you can.....and will.....beat this......Good for you Pam, My hats off to you........Love Hope and Longevity............Clift

    Thank you Clift....it means
    Thank you Clift....it means alot to me that you replied. I read alot of your posts and replies and I feel like you and several others can see thru the bs. I feel very good in my gut with this doctor but like you said, there's always a 3rd and 4th if need be. At first I was angry with how the first Onc handled everything and wanted to go to her office and box her ears. Now I'm just relieved that I moved on. My life is at stake here and it's just not worth trying to go back to her and make her understand why I didn't do it her way or why I couldn't continue treatment with her. I have to stay focused on what will make me get thru this and staying under her "control" wasn't it. I know this isn't going to be an easy fight and like you said, I need to be as knowledgable as possible. Coming to this board has helped me tremendously. I've learned alot from sitting back reading posts from you and others. I admire how positive you still are after everything you've been through and it gives me the drive to make it thru this. We're all in this together and know that I think of you often in your fight.

    Love back to you!

    Pam

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